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On his way home from work, Al Powell was at a gas station grabbing some twinkies when he was radioed to investigate an emergency call sent from John McClane at the hijacked Nakatomi Plaza. Arriving at the building, Powell was met by one of the terrorists posing as a security guard and was persuaded that the alarm was a mistake triggered by bugs in the Nakatomi computer system. In a desperate bid to attract Powell's attention, McClane threw Marco's corpse from the 34th floor onto the hood of his police car. Realizing that their cover had been blown, Hans Gruber's terrorists opened fire on Powell's desperately fleeing car.

Barely escaping, Powell called in for backup assistance and a police siege of the building began. Throughout the film, Powell talked to McClane (under the alias "Roy" or "cowboy") via CB radio and tried to help and comfort him, often defending him from the outbursts of his superior, Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson. Powell provided a link between McClane and the LAPD, keeping him up-to-date with developments such as the doomed SWAT team raid and the arrival of the FBI.

Al Powell meets John McClane for the first time.

During their conversations the two men grow to relate to one another and Powell reveals to McClane that he had been on desk-work following an accident where he shot and killed a child who was carrying a toy ray gun, after the incident he was unable to bring himself to fire his weapon any longer so he applied to be put on desk duty. The script reveals that he has spent eleven years behind the desk as a result. The last conversation the two men have via radio is abruptly cut short when McClane - having discovered that the roof was rigged with explosives - is placed at gunpoint by Gruber's right-hand man Karl. The only phrase Powell can discern is something to do with a double-cross.

At the end of the movie, McClane and Powell finally meet each other face to face greet one another. A friendly hug is brought to an abrupt end when Karl emerges from the building wielding a machine gun. As the terrorist brings his weapon to bare on John, Al finally summons the courage to draw his revolver again and shoots Karl dead.

Al Powell talking to John McClane on the telephone at the LAPD Building.

After a pair of armed perps break into the baggage handling area at Dulles International Airport, John McClane is forced to kill one of the men and grabs an improvised set of fingerprints from his corpse. Looking to identify the man, McClane phones Powell who is back in the LAPD office preparing to snack on a twinkie.

Asking how his vacation is going, John responds that his wife stood him alone in Washington DC with his in-laws, causing Powell to quip "Ah, the in-laws. They love their policemen son-in-laws, don't they?" McClane faxes the fingerprints to Powell for identification, much to his surprise considering McClane's aversion to technology.

After getting the dossier of the man that matched the fingerprints, he calls McClane back. Powell notes that, according to the Department of Defense, the man was an American military advisor, Sergeant Oswald Cochrane, who was reported killed in a helicopter accident in Honduras two years before. He then faxes a copy of the dossier to McClane. After getting his thanks from McClane, Powell nodded before hanging up on each other.